In the biblical definition of 'firstborn', sometimes the one who is not literally the firstborn becomes designated as the firstborn. The importance of the firstborn derives from the lesson that freedom is not without cost. The firstborn belong to God, whether the offspring is the literal firstborn or the symbolically set-apart such as the Levites, designated for temple duty. The literal first born was not Joseph, but the honor which should have gone to Reuben was transferred to Joseph. David, who was not the firstborn, was called the firstborn by God. Ephraim was honorifically called firstborn in Jeremiah 31:9. For Christians to be born again, we must be resurrected from our spiritual death to become alive. When one comes out of the waters of baptism, symbolizing the resurrection from the dead, we are transformed from dead men walking (spiritually dead) to firstborn—we become literally a part of the body of Christ, constituting a part (a metaphorical cell) of the Firstborn from the dead. When we become part of Christ's body, we become a part of the Firstborn—at one with Christ as Christ's Bride.